No Longer Your Joke: A Luna’s Exit Chapter 09

No Longer Your Joke: A Luna’s Exit Chapter 09

Lucian’s words made my parents’ faces go white.

They couldn’t even look at me.

He hung up.

He held the phone, silent for a long time.

Finally, he turned to me carefully.

“Declan said… he requested the records from Silverpine Medical Center.

“That depression diagnosis… it wasn’t Nessa’s.”

“It was yours.”

I let out a cold laugh.

I instinctively pressed my hand over the scars on my left wrist.

The wounds I’d hidden for so long.

Wolf blood heals fast.

But some things don’t fade with time.

Especially on rainy days.

My wolf still gets restless, still remembers.

“Isolde, I’m sorry,” Lucian said. “I should have protected you.”

“I always took their side.”

“I let you carry this alone for all those years.”

It was the first time since I’d left Blackthorn Pack that I’d ever heard him admit he was wrong.

But strange thing-I felt nothing.

My parents were crying too.

“Isolde, come home,” Mom said. “We’ll take care of you.”

“If you want to go to Silverlake Elite Academy, we’ll move here. Whatever you want.”

“We’ll be there for you-for your training, your studies, your whole life.”

“No more jokes. No more lies.”

I just shook my head.

“No thanks, Alpha. Luna.

“We’re not family anymore”

“My wounds are healed.”

“My life has already started over.’

“When I needed parents, you weren’t there.”

“I don’t need you now.”

They reached out.

But their hands stopped mid-air.

Because for the first time, they realized-

the little wolf who used to chase after them… wouldn’t reach back anymore.

“Go home. And don’t come back.”

As I left the training room, I ran into Declan around the corner.

He looked like he’d rushed over-jacket messy, hair a disaster.

The second he saw me, he pulled me into a hug.

I couldn’t push him off.

“Isolde… I finally found you!”

“I know everything now.”

“The diagnosis Nessa faked-the real patient was you. I’m so sorry…”

I’d heard too many apologies today.

So many that I felt nothing.

So many that I was just over it.

I stomped on his foot.

He yelped and let go.

“Isolde…

I stepped back, glaring at him.,

“Get lost, Declan. Save your self-righteous act. You think I’d forgive you? Never.”

“Never. Ever.”

“Isolde…”

His face was pale, like he was in agony.

He pulled a delicate silver ring from his pocket.

“Isolde, this isn’t some cheap thing I bought on a whim. I had it custom-made. Do you like it?”

“I want to finish what I didn’t get to say that day.”

“Just give me one more chance, okay?”

“I’ll prove I actually care.”

I glanced at the ring.

It wasn’t fake.

But so what?

I was way past the age where I needed him to sweet talk me.

“Declan, there’s no future for us.’

“Nothing you do now will change the past.

“You’re not trying to win me back.”

“You just can’t stand losing someone who was always there waiting.”

I picked up my books and walked into the academic building without looking back.

After that day, my world had nothing to do with any of them.

Later, I heard from mutual friends that Declan and Nessa got into a huge fight and cut each other off completely.

In college, Declan went through girlfriends like clothes-none of them lasted more than two months.

“You wouldn’t believe it,” they told me. “Declan’s obsessed.”

“Every girl he dates looks like you-same vibe, same features. It’s insane.”

“He’s not dating them.

“He’s looking for someone who’s already gone.

My parents and Lucian stopped going to Pack gatherings. They just locked themselves in the house.

Every June, they’d go out and buy some flowery dress. No one knew who it was for.

A friend told me:

“They really do regret it.

“They redecorated your room exactly how you liked it when you were little.”

I just smiled.

When I was there, no one cared.

When I left, suddenly everyone wanted to make it right.

But some things, once missed, stay missed.

There’s no place for them in my world anymore.

There’s only the sunshine of Silverlake.

Only the desk stacked with notebooks.

Only the teammates who fight beside me.

And the wolf who finally learned to love herself.